Repack report

I recently picked up a 10 pack Fairfield repack. I'd never gotten one of these but I figured I'd give it a shot. Through the window on the front I could see that it contained a 2012 Topps Series 1 rack pack and a pack of 2006 Upper Deck Ovation. The rest was a mystery. I really didn't get much of anything interesting and halfway through ripping it occurred to me that Fairfield almost certainly actively pack searches. So I can already tell you I won't be buying any more of these. But here's what was inside.

Donruss 88

Donruss 90

It wouldn't be a repack without some junk wax. I fully expected at least a couple packs like this so I wasn't annoyed. And it is kinda fun to rip some genuine wax packs that are over 20 years old even if the cards inside are worthless.

2006 Upper Deck Ovation retail pack

I really liked this pack. Cool looking set with the cards being stamped to give them texture. I checked and a hobby box of this can be had for pretty cheap. maybe I'll order one sometime. Looks like it could be a fun box break.

2012 Topps Opening Day retail pack

I normally don't buy Opening Day but I really like the look of this insert set.

2012 Topps Series 1 retail pack

2012 Topps Series 1 rack pack

Interestingly this rack pack did not contain any colored parallels. So I am assuming that it didn't come from Wal-mart, Target or Toys r Us. I didn't realize these were sold anywhere else. Walgreens maybe?

2012 Topps Chrome retail pack

I was surprised to see this pack in there. Such great looking cards.

The repack also contained a 2011 Topps Series 2 and 2012 Topps update Series pack. Neither one contained anything worth showing.

There was also one last pack that I will devote a post to later.

Overall the repack was very ehhh. The UD Ovation and Topps Chrome packs were definitely the best part. But Fairfield won't be getting anymore of my business.

Giving Panini another shot

Every once in awhile I'll grab a pack or two of a Panini product just to see how it is and if it is worth collecting. I have yet to find anything that I really liked all that much. Prizm would be a great set if it had logos. yes I'm a logo snob. So what?

Well on that same Target trip that I talked about last night I bought a pack each of Pinnacle and Cooperstown Collection.

Here's Pinnacle:

This is what the base cards look like, if you haven't seen them already. I think because these aren't "chrome" style cards like Prizm the lack of logos seems more egregious. But I like the overall look of the cards. It does remind me a lot of the Pinnacle cards I collected in the 90's. If Panini ever got full rights to MLB I would most likely buy a good amount of Pinnacle.

This was an interesting insert. The card is a clear acetate which is definitely out of the norm. But with nothing on the card besides what you see there it feels like it is lacking something. Definitely something that they could improve on to make a really cool insert in future sets.

Nolan Ryan on the back.

Another interesting card. But again it just feels like it is lacking something, besides logos of course.

Overall an interesting pack. The price point was $3 which I think is a bit high. These seem more on par with Topps flagship products so $2 would be more reasonable.

Now Cooperstown Collection

These are the base cards. Eh.

Every pack includes one of these "Colgan Disks". What in the world am I supposed to do with this? It doesn't really work to put it in something. And it's too small to use as a drink coaster. Panini missed the mark with these.

This pack was $4...yeah...waste of money. Wayyyyyy overpriced. I won't be buying anymore of these ever again. In fact I think I've come to realize that all of Panini's baseball products are rather underwhelming and often overpriced for what they contain. I haven't tried all of their stuff but at this point I don't think I'm going to waste anymore money on their products. I'm not expecting to get a monetary return, particularly on retail packs. But I do expect to enjoy ripping the packs and see some well designed cards. The lack of logos is a big issue for me so if they ever get the rights I may get interested. But that is probably years away if it ever happens at all.. I think I'll stick with Topps for now.

Fabric and a little bit of incomprehensible ink

Today I finally got caught up on scanning everything that I've picked up recently so I had to think for a minute about what I wanted to show and talk about in this post. I decided to go ahead and show off my last two acquisitions from my recent eBay binge as well as a lucky pull.

First from eBay:

I got this Brandon Beachy Relic Emerald Parallel 16/18 from '13 Triple Threads for for an incredible price, $2.50 I believe. I was the only person to bid on the auction. Of course the seller advertised it as having five jersey swatches. But as we all know with it being TRIPLE Threads there are three swatches with five cut windows. Plus I love relics that use alternate jerseys. Much more interesting then the normal bland home white or road grey. 

This CJ Wilson Unity Auto Jumbo Relic Sepia Parallel 20/75 was another surprisingly cheap auction win. About $5 IIRC and that was with four or five other bidders. The relic fabric is very soft, not like a normal jersey. Since it's red it obviously is not from pants so I guess the Angels use a more cotton, t-shirt like jersey material. On the other hand, what is up with that signature? I understand that these guys sign tons of stuff throughout the season plus the hundreds of stickers and cards they sign for Topps. But can't you at least have a signature that actually looks kind of like your name?

Now recently I was in Target and of course picked up some cards, most of which I will blog about in the near future. But they had one lonesome loose pack of 2013 Series 2 left in the box and of course I couldn't leave it there all lonely. This goodie was inside...

Pablo Sandoval Chasing History Relic Gold Parallel 02/99

WHAT?! I've pulled a good number of hits from non-flagship retail packs this year but nothing from flagship. And not to mention that this one somehow managed to elude the pack searchers and was in the last pack left in the box! Wow!! And like I mentioned above, I love it when alternate jerseys are used for relics, especially this nice bright orange.

That pack was probably my last flagship purchase until 2014 Series 1 comes out in a couple months. Quite a nice send-off for 2013!

A Blasterific Update

Recently I swore off buying anymore of this year's Topps Update Series. Too many fillers, too much junk. So what did I do the next time I was in Wal-mart? I bought a blaster of 2013 Topps Update. Idiot...

Oh well at least I did pull a few nice cards.

I hate the Yankees just like any other self-respecting non-Yankees baseball fan. But Mo...now that's a guy I have nothing but respect for. Can't wait to see him in Cooperstown.

I pulled two gold parallels which I believe is standard for a blaster.

0822/2013

1044/2013 

Heyoo!

I'm kinda ehhh about this insert series. A lot of the photos are too dark.

And lastly, the manu-patch.

I suppose these are cool cards. I'd probably be more interested if I got a Brave. Any Giants collectors out there looking for this one?

Now I swear I am done with the Update series for this year.

Topps and their photo fails

I like Topps. I always have ever since I first started collecting in the mid-90's. As a boy with a meager allowance I liked to spring for packs of Topps cards because they just felt like they were of a higher quality than a lot of the offerings from other manufacturer. Granted, I loved UD Collector's Choice too. Don't judge. But these days Topps seems to be a regular target for bashing and vitriol from collectors, and often deservedly so.

Due to Upper Deck's own stupidity with their 2010 release they've all but been pushed out of the baseball market. And Panini and their plethora of logoless products is really no more than a chihuahua that bites at Topps' substantial ankles and begs collectors for attention. With Topps having the exclusive rights since 2010 they seem to be getting lazy in some areas. Here are a couple examples from cards I've pulled recently from the Update series.

I've seen a few other bloggers show this card and talk about it's awfulness. Topps has a bad habit of photoshopping player's heads onto someone else's body when they can't find a good photo. While they've been doing it forever I think this is the absolute worst one I've seen. It is my assumption that rather than employing their own photographers, Topps buys the shots they need from other sources like the AP, Getty and freelancers. But I don't know how they can manage to not find a decent photo of a player in the correct uniform by the time the cards go to print. Particularly for the Update series. It just seems lazy on Topps' part and lazy on the part of whoever created this photoshopped monstrosity. (Apologies to Kendrys Morales)

Here is a case of more laziness by Topps photo selectors. Because they fill the Update series with all of these junk All-Star Game and Home Run Derby cards, one would think that Topps would perhaps task a few photographers to capture shots of the players specifically for them. Maybe they do that anyways. But here are two examples of awful choices of photos. The lighting in the Pedro Alvarez card is such that his left eye is shadowed by his hat brim while his right eye is not. Because of that it looks like he has a black eye. Maybe Topps wanted us to think Alvarez picked up a nice shiner pre-game by getting in Prince Fielder's way at the food table.

The photo for the Clay Bucholz card on the other hand is distorted and grainy. It looks as if he was in the outfield while the photographer taking the picture was in the photog's bay by the dugout and it's so zoomed in that the photo was distorted even on a 2.5 x 3.5 card. I mean, really? They couldn't find a better shot of Bucholz from the entire All-Star workout or game? These days the photographers have Ultra Extra 23509233 Megapixel DSLR cameras with 2,000,000x zoom yet this photo looks like it was taken with a point-and-shoot digital camera from 1998.

FAILURE

And yet for some reason I still give these people my money...